Hi,I recently purchased this Iestyn Davies paperweight at an Antiques Fair. I have collected some of his pieces over the years but have never seen a paperweight by him. It's signed and dated 1989 which may have been during his period at Strathearn.Has any one else come across one like ths before please? It might be of interest to Frank for his Scotland Glass site or it just might have been made after he left Strathearn whenever that was. Here are some photo's.

Thanks Frank. I might just do that. I remember visiting his workshop in Stourbridge about 2001 and was amazed at his gecko sculptures and stunning bowls. Totally different from his early work at Stuart.

Hi Sue,Those Gecko pieces are stunning aren't they. I visited the workshop in Stourbridge back in the early days of the new Millennium and saw them being made. There were shelf fulls of them there and also loads of the large geode bowls that I still would love to own. They were out of my price range then and probably still are :mrgreen:. You can still seen the bowls on his Blowzone website under Vintage. I actually visited Stourbridge to see where Okra Glass was being made and Iestyn was in another part of the building. This paperweight would have been made soon after he left Stuart Strathearn. A less flamboyant piece but still superb in it's own way.

He certainly used a lot of inspiration from IoWSG, didn't he? My brother has a good collection of ID's work - some I love, other stuff I hate. There is a particularly hideous satinated vase with a "glamorous" fish on it - quite literally with a massive trout pout, in bright pink. I like the multicolored incalmo bowls with "random" lozenges cut into them - I also like the clear vase Michael Harris designed, cut and engraved around 1960, on p.8 of Mark's book, all covered in random lozenges......

I'm not sure what he was doing after he left Stuart Strathearn, or when that was. I had a little perfume bottle with two shades of gold foil inside, at different depths in the glass - it was very tigery, signed and dated '88. I imagine this weight of yours was made in similar working circumstances? When did he set Blowzone up?

It would seem to have been sometime around February 1999 as according to the web page http://www.kingswinford.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/org/wordsley/glassmaking.htm many of the previous occupants of the Coalbournhill glassworks in Stourbridge ie Webb and Corbett had closed down, but the retail section had continued at the Crystal Glass Centre in Amblecote some 300 yards from Coalbournhill. It states "that some studio glass makers named Blowzone had also moved into the Centre and started up a small glass melting furnace" . By the time I visited in around 2002 it was well up and running and Okra Glass's Richard Golding was also using the centre for both production and sales. So where Iestyn Davies was between 1988 and 1999 I have no idea. He was obviously still producing super glass pieces, just like your perfume bottle and my paperweight, but from where? I also don't know whether Iestyn Davies used other retail outlets like Richard, I have never seen any of his items up for sale except very very occasionally in Antique Fairs. I want an Incalmo bowl!!!!

Hi again Sue,Just gleemed some more info on Iestyn. Apparently after leaving Stuart he set up Osiris glass at Broadfield Glass Museum. There is an Osiris Vase on eBay at the moment. Not quite to my taste though. :phew: My mate John, glassobsessed might like it though.